Rashek is a major character in the Mistborn series. He is the main antagonist of The FInal Empire, but is a posthumous protagonist in The Hero of Ages. He was an immortal emperor who tried to protect humanity from the evil deity Ruin . While he had good intentions for humanity, he used cruel and vicious methods to rule his empire and subjugate his citizens. It is implied however, that many of his crueler actions were influenced by Ruin.
Early Life[]
Rashek was born to the Terris people. He was a feruchemist, meaning that he could store physical abilities in metal. He hated the nation of Khlennium, which persecuted the Terris people. When his uncle, Kwaan, proclaimed a Khlennium man, Alendi, as the Hero of Ages, Rashek was angry that someone who was not Terris could be the hero.
As Alendi conquered the world to build an army to defeat "The Deepness", which was the Mist, Kwaan discovered that the prophecy of the Hero of Ages was manipulated by ruin. If the hero took the power from the well of Ascension and released it, he would free ruin. Kwaan realized that Alendi was too noble to use the power, and would release it, so he charged his nephew, Rashek to stop him.
Rashek killed Alendi and took the power for himself. He tried to fix the world, but ended up making it worse. He moved the planet closer to the sun to dissolve the Mist, but made it too hot. He created the Ashmounts to spew ash into the air and block the sun. He then had to create microorganisms to disolve the ash. At the Well, he learned about Preservation and Ruin, and of Ruin's plans to destroy the word, and resolved to stop him.
Creating the Final Empire[]
Rahsek found Lerasium, which made him Mistborn. Using a mixture between Feruchemy and Allomancy, he was able to make himself immortal, as well as stregnthen his Allomantic powers. He gave his followers the metal and made them Mistborn, and made them the Noblemen of the empire. Using the power of the Well, he created Skaa, a servant class for the empire. Using Hemalurgy, he created three types of servants: Inquisitors to be his preists, Koloss to be his soldiers, and Kandra to be his spies.
He turned all of the living Feruchemists into Kandra, so that no one could besides him could be both an allomancer and a feruchemist. He subjugated the rest of the Terris people in order to breed out the trait of Feruchemy, and turned the Terris into servants, barely above the Skaa.
He made a religion, preaching himself as a god, and used Inquisitors and Obligators to enforce his religion and laws. In order to keep allomancy among the noblemen, he stated that any noblemen who slept with (raped) a Skaa woman must kill her. He kept the Skaa as servants and slaughtered any Skaa rebels, He would hold mass executions in order to keep the Skaa in line. Skaa were often sent to the Pits of Hathsin to mine the precious metal atium, which was secretly also the body of Ruin,. Rashek used atium as a currency for the noblemen, and hoarded it from them, in order to control him.
Fighting Ruin[]
Rashek took several measures to stop Ruin.
- He made several underground caverns for people to hide and to store resources for people to survive. He made these arounbd mines, since he knew Ruin could not see metal.
- He left instructions written in metal, giving helpful information to his Obligators, such as secret allomantic metals, in case Ruin ever came back.
- He hid most of the atium with the Kandra, and secrety send only a fraction to the Noblemen. This way, Ruin would not be able to find the atium if he should return. He hid this information from the inquisitors, who he knew could be easily controlled by Ruin.
- He gave the Kanda instructions to kill themselves if Ruin should return, as Ruin could control them as well.
Final Years[]
Kelsier and his wife, Mare, broke into Rashek's palace, Kredik Shaw. Rashek captured them and sent them to the pits of Hathsin to die. However, Kelsier survived the pits and became Mistborn. Kelsier and his crew joined the Skaa rebellion against the FInal Empire. They organized an army and planned ot overthrow him. However, most of the Skaa army was killed, and Rashek held a mass execution as punishment. During an execution shortly after, Kelsier tried to save the victims. he managed to kill an inquisitor, but was killed by Rashek However, Kelsier had ordered the Kandra OreSeur to impersonate him, setting himself up as a messiah figure for the Skaa to rally around.
The Skaa riose up and Vin invaded Kredik Shaw. She saw Rashek storing lifeforce into his Metalminds. Vin fought against several inquisitors and was captured. Rashek forced her to reveal her father was Tevidian, who he then killed. Vin was imprisoned but was rescued by Sezad. She attacked Rashek, helped by the Marsh, who had become an inquisitor. Rashek was beating Vin easily, but inadvertenly tore off her earing, which unbeknownst to either of them, was a hemalurgic spike Ruin was using to control Vin. Vin burned malatium, which showed her Rashek's past. She realized that the Lord Ruler was Rashel the Terrisman, and was able to draw on the power of the Mist, which tore off hsi Metalminds and removed his immortality.
As he lay dying, Rashek warned Vin that his death would doom all of humanity.